Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon

Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon

Note: An expanded printed edition of this text is now included in The Lesser Key of Solomon, available from Red Wheel/Weiser publishers. See listing at Amazon. com for more details.

For a critical edition of the Latin text, see Vé ronè se: L'«Ars notoria» au Moyen Age. Introduction et йdition critique. Ediz. francese e latina. (Micrologus' library). Sismel: 2007.

For a full-color scan of a manuscript at Yale University, see http: //www. scribd. com/doc/23507392/ars-notoria.

Introduction

The Ars Notoria is a Medieval Grimoire of the 'Solomonic Cycle'. Many Latin manuscripts are extant, the oldest are dated thirteenth century, and possibly earlier. Like Liber Juratus (also thirteenth century), the text centers around an even older collection of orations or prayers which are interspersed with magical words. The orations in Ars Notoria and those in Liber Juratus are closely related, and there is evidence that the Ars Notoria represents the earlier version, and Liber Juratus is dependent on it. (See Gцsta Hedegеrd: Liber Iuratus Honorii Stockholm: Almovist & Wiksell International, 2002. ) The orations in both works are said to have mystical properties which can impart communion with God and instant knowledge of divine and human arts and sciences.

Robert Turner's 1657 edition of the Ars Notoria is evidently his own translation from the Latin, and is apparently based on the Latin version which was printed with Agrippa's Opera Omnia. Unfortunately both these versions omit the drawings of the notae or mystical drawings which are the centerpiece of this art. Their omission adds greatly to the confusion of the text. Unfortunately, Turner further adds to the confusion by omitting some of the internal references to the missing figures (for example, see oration 8. )

Turner's translations also exhibit some anti-Catholic bias, as might be expected. As examples, he omits references to confession, or renders the passage as " confessed unto God"; he also drops references to remaining faithful to the Catholic church.

The Ars Notoria enjoyed a long and fluid history, the text mutating over time. The version included in Agrippa essentially represents the end of this process. It also represents the abridged or 'glossed' version of Ars Notoria as opposed to the older version, which Vé ronè se calls " version A". (See Vé ronè se, p. 17. )

For examples of the illustrations and an excellent discussion of the Ars Notoria, see the article by Michael Camille in Claire Fanger, Conjuring Spirits, Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic(Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998, pp. 110 ff. )

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